Rand Paul Stands Up forTea Party and American Race

"Asked whether he opposes part of the Civil Rights Act, Paul said if "you decide that restaurants are publicly owned and not privately owned, then do you say that you should have the right to bring your gun into a restaurant even though the owner of the restaurant says, 'Well no, we don't want to have guns in here.' The bar says, `We don't want to have guns in here because people might drink and start fighting and shoot each other.' Does the owner of the restaurant own his restaurant? Or does the government own his restaurant?""

Exactly, it is the same thing.

We are sick and tired of all the Welfare, Affirmative Action, soft on crime and all that. Rand Paul will work to take this country back. We're fed up. Enough is enough. We should have a tea party every month until the Marxist, Muslim, non-citizen resigns or is impeached for treason! Go Tea Party! Go Rand Paul!

Posted by M.
a resident of Downtown
on May 20, 2010 at 10:14 pmM. is a registered user.

American race?
Yet another fool who has fallen for yet another entertainer's (read talking head) catch phrase designed to get people up in arms. Just FYI again, there is no "American race." How about thinking about what you are about to say before you speak, it might save you some embarrassment.

No, Fox news is not news. News reporting is reporting facts, not opinions, not speculation, not the reporters theories and interpretations.

Posted by jimf01
a resident of another community
on May 20, 2010 at 10:28 pmjimf01 is a registered user.

I KNEW this post was coming when I heard the story!

Posted by a coward liberal who post the progressives potshots here, accusing racism.

Because Rand Paul questioned an aspect of the civil rights act of 1964, the one specifically that regulates private businesses, mainstream media will start now and continue the story til November that the TEA Party and Rand Paul and his Dad for that matter are all RACISTS!! RACIST RACIST RACIST! ! !

Same as the phony accusation from the Democrat Congressmen who tried to set up TEA Partiers on the steps of the Capitol during the HCR vote, and every other time prior to and since that.

Phony rhetoric and a phony charge from a desperate group trying to hold power in the Congress. Plain and simple.

Like Rand Paul said on Tuesday night, "I have a message, a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words, we have come to take our government back."

Posted by No partier here
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on May 20, 2010 at 11:14 pm

The tea party is trying to take credit for some like PAUL who would have been running without any 'tea party' ! ! ! He and his Dad are & were Libertarians and planned on him running this year....before any thoughts of this lose variant of 'individuals' who from one town to another, don't have a clue of any connection with the others. In the south they are the raging born agains, crusading on fixing your life for you.
And don't read or pin any more on him that what he said. Don't twist or take out of context. I would NEVER vote for him. I'm a traditional Republican....not a raging zealot with any of the variety of crusaders.

Posted by No partier here
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on May 20, 2010 at 11:24 pm

Now M. MSNBC's Matthews, Ed,& Oberman are strictly EXCLUSIVELY OPINION,, rarely a fact. Don't make irrational exagerated statements (otherwise known as lies). Don't make assumptions about me . . . . I never watch Fox or listen to Rush, wouldn't know where or when to find him. I'm a REAL tradidional Republican, so wouldn't go for any of these.

Posted by letsgo
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on May 20, 2010 at 11:36 pm

"American race?"

There is an American race, and it is me.

Let's look at one defintion of race " A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution"

I am a member of the American race. I was born here and my parents were born here. Its sad to think that a large number of people in this country do not consider themselves part of the American race. I love this country. You can celebrate your history, but if you are a citizen in the United States of America, you should consider yourself part of the American race.

If you go back far enough, say 250 years or so, you'll find that you don't share a common history with the majority of the citizens of this country. Nice try...that's why there is a distinction of African America, European American, Asian American, Native American. Go back to school you might learn something and stop sounding like yourself

Posted by letsgo
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on May 20, 2010 at 11:49 pm

Holy cow, I didn't think there were people as stupid as "clueless" left in this world. But the world still surprises me. If you go back far enough we all share the same history as slimy fish type things coming from the sea. I'm not sure what your point is? There was no Mexico or Germany or Ireland 25,000 years ago, so no one should consider themselves German, Mexican or Irish, is that what you are saying? What race what you consider yourself? The aqua race from the sea? The Adam and Eve race? Please enlighten everyone about your vast knowledge of human/societal/race development.

Posted by Kathleen
a resident of Amador Valley High School
on May 21, 2010 at 9:19 am

Jim -- It is not just about Paul's comments regarding the Civil Rights Act. He has made many other off-the-wall remarks in public forums. Even you, an educated conservative, must recognize that he is an extremist. He is too far right of right to be elected to congress, almost guaranteeing a Democrat will take the seat. He is a spoiler. And, if by some fluke he were elected, he would ineffectual on committees and in coalitions because of his extreme rightist positions.

As a gentle reminder, he won 58% of the primary votes in an election with only 32% turnout, hardly impressive.

Posted by Kathleen
a resident of Amador Valley High School
on May 21, 2010 at 12:45 pm

The first thing that Paul said that made me reconsider him as a truly viable candidate was in interview he gave to Robert Siegel on NPR where he indicated that he felt the Americans with Disabilities Act was an example of the federal government "overreaching".

I sincerely doubt that Dr. Paul understood the extent to which the ADA has changed the physical and legal world we live in for the better. He spoke from a position of ignorance, which set off alarms in my head.

The accessibility provisions of the ADA go back to the early 1970's here in CA where a grassroots group of organizers put forth lists of recommendations for improvements to create barrier-free, i.e. wheelchair accessible, public spaces. These ideas spread and are now fully codified. The 2007 CA Building Code, the law of the land, is based on the 2006 International Building Code and all accessibility provisions from the former CA Code of Regulations Title 24 and the ADA are part of the building code.

Now ubiquitous, these accessibility standards are almost 40 years in the making, and he wants it repealed? Shear nonsense.

Posted by Shig
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on May 21, 2010 at 12:55 pm

Kathleen,

You are an idiot. You people take everything out of context. I watched the interview about ADA and he said "if you are a businessman and you have a handicapped employee you do not need the government to regulate that you put in a $200,000 elevator to get to the second floor but rather as a smart business person you would just give them a desk on the first floor". Please think for yourself. Kathleen, you can do it......you do not need to government to tell you what to do and think.....ok now say it to yourself slowly 10 times.........geez!!!!!!!!

Posted by jimf01
a resident of another community
on May 21, 2010 at 1:06 pm

Here is what he said:
SIEGEL: But it's been one of the major developments in American history in the course of your life. I mean, do you think the '64 Civil Rights Act or the ADA for that matter were just overreaches and that business shouldn't be bothered by people with the basis in law to sue them for redress?

Dr. PAUL: Right. I think a lot of things could be handled locally. For example, I think that we should try to do everything we can to allow for people with disabilities and handicaps. You know, we do it in our office with wheelchair ramps and things like that. I think if you have a two-story office and you hire someone who's handicapped, it might be reasonable to let him have an office on the first floor rather than the government saying you have to have a $100,000 elevator. And I think when you get to the solutions like that, the more local the better, and the more common sense the decisions are, rather than having a federal government make those decisions.

And what I have learned recently is that there are ADA provisions which have created a lawsuit abuses right here in CA. A group of attorneys go around searching for ADA non-compliance, and slapping on a lawsuit without giving any chance for correction of the issue.
Then what happens next in a lot of cases is an offer is made to settle the lawsuit, an offer cheaper than hiring an attorney to defend yourself. The outrageous bit is that when these offers are accepted, the attorney takes the money and goes away, there is no follow-up to see if the ADA non-compliance was corrected.

That is an instance of our laegislature overreaching, over-legislating, and simply not caring for the unintended consequences that harm business owners, and since businesses pass on the cost, indirectly harming the public.
Perfectly reasonable to have a reporting process to identify and correct ADA non-compliance, but the legislature has refused to rollback these regulations which lead to lawsuit abuse, because, SURPRISE!, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Sacramento and DC are the trial lawyers!

Posted by Kathleen
a resident of Amador Valley High School
on May 21, 2010 at 1:09 pm

Your insults aside, Dr. Paul showed his ignorance of the ADA by setting up that generic example as his reasons against the accessibility provisions because by code an elevator would not have been required in all likelihood anyway.

The code goes far, far beyond his false example, and to suggest it should be repealed based on that false example is absurd.

Posted by Kathleen
a resident of Amador Valley High School
on May 21, 2010 at 1:46 pm

Let me give you a couple of examples of how provisions in the ADA have become included in the state's building codes, and you can ask yourself if you would prefer these elements standardized across the country or defined by local customs:

1. The control panels of elevators and their emergency operations.
2. The locations of light switches in hotel rooms.
3. Wheelchair accessible election polling places.
4. The heights of operable controls and card readers for devices like ATM's and gas station pumps.
5. Tactile edges along transit boarding platforms.

I could list thousands more, but I am sure you see my point. We have been living with the evolving principles of the ADA and the building code for 40 years, and the rights of business owners does not trump the rights of any other citizen.

Posted by Kathleen
a resident of Amador Valley High School
on May 21, 2010 at 2:56 pm

Jim -- You seem to have decided for me what issues I can concede, but I cannot agree with his double standard for private/public civil rights.

From an editorial he wrote for his hometown newspaper, the Bowling Green Daily News:
"The Daily News ignores,as does the Fair Housing Act, the distinction between private and public property. Should it be prohibited for public, taxpayer-financed institutions such as schools to reject someone based on an individual's beliefs or attributes? Most certainly. Should it be prohibited for private entities such as a church, bed and breakfast or retirement neighborhood that doesn't want noisy children? Absolutely not."
From the same editorial:
"A free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination, even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude people based on the color of their skin. It is unenlightened and ill-informed to promote discrimination against individuals based on the color of their skin. It is likewise unwise to forget the distinction between public (taxpayer-financed) and private entities."
Further he adds:
"Decisions concerning private property and associations should in a free society be unhindered. As a consequence, some associations will discriminate."

This double speak bothers me a great deal. He has masterfully manipulated the language here, and in the ADA question, to appear in support of politically correct issues while attacking the federal basis from which those protections are derived. He does not support discrimination in public arenas, but appears to tolerate it in private ones. That, to me, is off-the-wall.

Posted by M.
a resident of Downtown
on May 21, 2010 at 3:04 pmM. is a registered user.

No partier here

Yeah, the MSNBC people are just as bad as the others, like I have said countless times on these forums, all of them are not actual news organizations. By the way The web link in tho post is to Fox News...

Posted by jimf01
a resident of another community
on May 21, 2010 at 3:40 pm

It appears that you are trying to masterfully manipulate the language. Rand Paul does not engage in doublespeak or "appear" to tolerate, he says straight out:

A free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination, even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude...

That's pretty straightforward. I can understand disdain for this attitude amongst progressives and those favoring an ever expanding role for government regulation in our lives.
Rand Paul is basically favoring a very limited role of government in our lives in this area.

The elections are starting to get very interesting! Given the heat that's being generated on all sides, I strongly recommend that all candidates for political office watch their backs: Web Link

I think that both Sarah Palin & Rand Paul are at risk. There extremists are all over the country and when they act out violently and take the lives of other Americans, it's time to keep a low profile and pray that what's coming passes you by.

It's gonna be a very bumpy ride in America for the next several years. Watch out!

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